Essere danzatore e intellettuale nell'Ottocento: danza e scrittura di sé

Abstract

Dance researches are not yet familiar with comparative studies, which consist in describing the authority of a “classic” through a repertoire of incidence forms and of reception manners. Our aim, following this perspective, is to critically analyze the canon of the danse d'école and its authority on the pedagogical and performing experiences of Carlo Blasis (1795-1878) in Milan and of August Bournonville (1805-1879) in Copenhagen. By this, we will attempt to identify their processes of appropriation and cultural reworking concerning this ideology on dancing bodies. Our starting point is the analysis of the way the intellectual dancer creates his identity through relationships personal, social, national and international. During the first half of the nineteenth century these relationships are reflected in self-writing and dance-writing, in seek of its own place and praise within the intellectual culture.